Capsule brings first comet dust to earth
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-16 06:54

The first parachute unfurled at 100,000 feet, followed by a larger chute, which guided the capsule to a 10-mph landing at Dugway Proving Ground. There was a tense moment in mission control when engineers could not immediately confirm the first parachute had opened.

Before coming to rest on its side, the capsule bounced three times but didn't crack, said Joe Vellinga of Lockheed Martin, who helped lead the recovery.

Scientists in white protective suits spent the day cleaning the capsule and its canister of dust samples before the trip to Johnson Space Center. It will be days before engineers learn how well the capsule's heat shield held up during the fiery re-entry.

The Stardust mothership remains in orbit around the sun and NASA is considering sending it to another comet or asteroid to snap photos. There won't be another chance for a sample return, however, because the craft carried only one capsule.

Stardust and Genesis were the first robotic retrievals of extraterrestrial material since the unmanned Soviet Luna 24 in 1976, which brought back lunar rocks and soil.

The Stardust spacecraft was launched in 1999 and has traveled nearly 3 billion miles, including three loops around the sun.

In 2004, it survived a hazardous trip through the comet's coma, a fuzzy halo of gas and dust, to snatch the cosmic dust with a tennis racket-sized collector mitt. Along the way, it also scooped up interstellar dust — tiny particles thought to have been thrown out by stars that long ago exploded and died.

During the comet flyby, the spacecraft also beamed back 72 black-and-white pictures showing broad mesas, craters, pinnacles and canyons on the surface of Wild 2.

Six months ago, NASA sent the Deep Impact probe into the path of another comet. The probe's high-speed collision with comet Tempel 1 set off a celestial fireworks display and bared the comet's primordial interior.

Scientists have been analyzing the voluminous debris hurled from the comet and are trying to figure out the size of the crater caused by the debris-shrouded impact.